Anna's Bridge
60 Letters and Emails Sent So Far
A Mother's Plea:
My name is Tara Stickel, my daughter Anna Marie Stickel was struck and killed by an Amtrack train on January 5, 2010. The train tracks my daughter was killed on were adjacent to Orems Rd and are frequently used by school aged children as a short-cut to school. My daughter was not supposed to be on those tracks, she was not supposed to walk to school. Unfortunately she missed her bus and without my knowledge her and her girlfriend walked to school. It was a very long and cold walk for her, so the tracks were used as a "short-cut", an opportunity that should never have been afforded to my daughter. Unfortunately they were, and I am now left without her. Parents as you know cannot watch their children every second. Kids are reckless, and don't always think about what risks they are taking. Kids tend to think nothing bad can never happen to them. My daughter was no different, except something bad did happen to her. I, on behalf of my daughter would like to propose "Anna's Bridge". Anna's Bridge would require a bridge that kids can use as an access point to school. It would reguire a bridge be built over any railroad track that is in the vicinity of a school. The bridge should start and end at the closest point of the school so that these kids have an option. The Orems Rd. tracks are accessible to 3 different schools and are in a family oriented community. We need to protect our kids and make sure they have an alternative to crossing the tracks. With this proposal kids could cross the bridge, not the tracks. It would still offer them their "short-cut" but keep them safe at the same time. This proposal is so important as we have lost too many children to those tracks. I don't want to see another parent go through what I and so many other parents have gone through at the expense of these tracks. Please contact me when possible, regarding this proposal. I am trying so hard to find meaning in my daughters death and I'm hopeing this will save the lives of other kids.
With my deepest regret,
Tara L.Stickel
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We can't continue to borrow money on the tab of the next generation who will have to pay it back. A project that would involve creating a bridge crossing railroad tracks near every school seems like something that would be extremely costly to plan, construct, and maintain.
Some events in life are awful tradgedies, and that's simply what they are. Are we as safe as we can be in regards to railroad safety? I think that when you look at the big-picture data, the answer is yes. Most of our kids--the vast majority of our kids--are doing the right thing on a daily basis in regards to safety. That doesn't diminish this particular tragedy, but it does illustrate that our limited public resources can better be spent somewhere else.
If friends and relatives of this young girl want to take up a local fund raising drive to build a bridge in their community, that would be fine by me. The idea of using federal money to do so (and potentially in many locations) seems to me to be an inappropriate use of public funds. Those same funds could be better used somewhere else--perhaps even in other (more reasonable) forms of safety measures that will better benefit the public as a whole.
We all take risks in life and unfortunately this person took a risk that cost her the ultimate sacrifice, her life. Hopefully other young people can learn from this experience. But more money being spent on these types of projects won't make any difference. We can't take all risk out of everything in the world, nor can we expect ourselves or our children to live life in a bubble. The world doesn't work that way.
While none of us were killed as children, we were all banged up at one point or another, weren't we? I got a concussion playing football--but that doesn't mean we need congressional action to ban football. I burned myself on a cookie sheet--but that doesn't mean we need to spend millions of dollars making them safer. And I was actually almost killed in a car accident--but that doesn't mean I'd ever advocate that people stop driving or millions of dollars be spent in my name, even if I was.
To reiterate: I didn't write all that I intended to initially and I think I was more abrasive (and less explanatory) than I should have been. But the consequences of profligate spending *are certain* to affect your children and future generations of children far more than the tiny chance that they will be killed by a train. The issue isn't about R's or D's, it's actually apolitical and more about statistics and chance.
This individual tragedy was a tragedy, plain and simple. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family. That being said, our resources are not unlimi
Stop this boondoggle!
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